ters a good thing without too much
emphasis, and yet more often says true things, which is more difficult
still. He is nowhere bookish, although he has read and can quote well if
need be. He reminds one occasionally of Emerson, oftener of Thoreau,
while his method is that of John Burroughs. His most careful studies are
perhaps of the birds on Boston Common and about Boston, but he writes
pleasantly and suggestively of those in the White Mountains. One likes
to be reminded that there are still bobolinks in the world, for they
have deserted many spots which they once favored. There used to be
meadows full of rocks, in each crevice of which nodded a scarlet
columbine, surrounded by grassy borders where wild strawberries grew
thickly, with hedge-rows running riot with blackberry, sumach, and
alder,--all reckless of utility and given over to lovely waste,--that
were vocal on June mornings with bobolinks, but where in these times one
might wait the whole day through and not hear a single note of the old
refrain. Our author finds them plentiful, however, at North Conway,
where, as he describes it, their "song dropped from above" while he sat
perched on a fence-rail looking at the snow-crowned Mount Washington
range.

"The Cruise of the Brooklyn.
A Journal of the principal events of a three years' cruise in
the U. S. Flag-Ship Brooklyn, in the South Atlantic Station,
extending south of the Equator from Cape Horn east to the limits
in the Indian Ocean on the seventieth meridian of east
longitude. Descriptions of places in South America, Africa, and
Madagascar, with details of the peculiar customs and industries
of their inhabitants. The cruises of the other vessels of the
American squadron, from November, 1881, to November, 1884."
By W.H. Beehler, Lieut. U. S. Navy.
Illustrated.
Press of J.B. Lippincott Co. Philadelphia. 1885.

The copious information given on the title-page leaves little to be
supplied in regard to the subject-matter of this volume. The same
thoroughness is displayed in the narrative and descriptions, as well of
the incidents of the voyage and the details of shipboard life as of the
history, productions, and scenery of the various places visited. They
include, of course, no events or operations such as belong to the annals
of naval enterprise or maritime discovery, but, besides the ordinary
phases of service on foreign stations,--the interchange of courtesies
with the authoriti